Media: India chooses Ukrainian An-178 aircraft over Russian Il-214

Tuesday, March 21, 2017 5:34:43 PM

India is no longer interested in the Russian Il-214 transport aircraft, a plane that has been in constant development for 17 years. 24.ua TV reports that the country will focus on the Ukrainian An-178 instead.

The IL-214 was slated to replace the obsolete AN-12 aircraft currently used by the Armed Forces of India and Russia. Work on the aircraft began way back in 2000 and India joined the development in 2007.

It was reported that the aircraft was developed by the Ilyushin Aviation Complex (IL), NPK Irkut and Indian company Hindustan Aeronautics. However, in spite of the lengthy development period, the actual aircraft was never built. Only a model of the plane exists. India finally decided to suspend its participation in the project.

India needed a plane with a carrying capacity of about 20 tons and that could land on high-altitude airfields with unpaved runway. As a result, last year, India signed an agreement on jointly developing such an aircraft with the Ukrainian corporation Antonov, which already has a flying prototype of the An-178 transport aircraft.

It should be added that earlier, the Ukrainian State Concern Ukroboronoprom stated that during the manufacture of An-178 it was possible to completely abandon the use of Russian components.

Back in 2016, Ilyushin’s General Director Sergey Velmozhkin said that the Russian-Indian joint project to build the IL-214 was frozen. On Friday, March 17, Russian Industry and Trade Minister Denis Manturov announced that the abandonment of the project was finalized.